I have chosen to look at something a little more theoretical than concrete…
In his write up for Task 7: Mode Bending, Juliano touches on some very important points. First are the ideas of individualization and differentiation:
“The benefit of mode-changing is that it forces educators to revisit what we are teaching and adapt it to our audience so that it is relevant to them and engages them.”
This mirrors The New London Group’s idea of trying to ensure that individual differences are not barriers to educational success (The New London Group. (1996), p. 61). Teachers need to recognize what mode is best for individual students and then try their best to differentiate the curriculum to the advantage of the student’s learning style. I agree with Juliano that this is not always possible as our curriculum has not completely moved away from the “stand and deliver facts” model to the more inquiry-based “Big Ideas” model that we are implementing, but with collaboration between students and teachers we are moving in the right direction.
“A holistic approach that connects the concepts to our students’ lives is how we are going to engage them and keep their interest and create opportunities for deeper learning.”
I still remember sitting in Physics class and the teacher rolling out an old school movie projector to show the class movies on motion and gravity (yes, the gentleman in the movie had a white short sleeved shirt, black tie, black glasses, and a buzz cut). This would cause most students today to slip into some sort of catatonic state, where only the glitchy embrace of a Tik Tok video would bring them out. Videos are harder with students brought up on not watching television shows per se, but shorter more “exciting” videos found on their phones. And that is another benefit of mode bending; it allows the students to show us, the educators, what type of media is beneficial to their learning. That way, we become better teachers and students have taken a step to being more responsible for their education. A win-win scenario for sure!
Juliano’s Mode-Bending Assignment
I found a lot of similarities between Sarah’s account of this task and my own; larger, more important pieces get typed up and smaller, more informal ones are done in handwriting. Sarah feels comfortable taking notes on her phone though, something I do not like doing as I am not a great thumb typist and I’m at the age where my arms aren’t long enough for me to see what I’m typing on my phone screen. Where we had our biggest divergence in opinion was in our preference and significant differences. Sarah loves the convenience and speed of mechanization, while I prefer the speed I have with my pen. I also lay out my sentimental reasons of not letting go of a finished product that is in your hands. Sarah has no qualms about this; she loves all the other aspects that computerization have given her:
“Nowadays, when you type something you can quickly personalize the text, correct it, make multiple copies, and share it with others.”
It is this property of the computerization of writing that I completely overlooked. I have found that using Google Docs and Word 360 to be almost God-sends in these pandemic times. Last week, we had five people working simultaneously on a draft letter for our staff and only two of us were located in the school. We would leave notes to each other in the margins by changing the font colour to grab our attention and quickly zoom back and forth reading and editing others’ paragraphs. We accomplished something that would usually take hours, if not a day, with handwriting (or Microsoft Word installed on your computer) in just over fifteen minutes. Sarah reminded me that letting go of the attachment to some writing pieces and allowing computerization and collaboration is a great thing, and I need to do more of that.
“… the minister finally believes Tumblr and telling the truth so yeah EDM Dumbledore Ryback seems okay…”
I texted Binal (we know each other outside of this program) that this was my favourite line in her voice-to-text assignment by far: anytime you get to mix a minister, Tumblr, Electronic Dance Music, Dumbledore, and pro wrestler Ryback together it’s going to be a party! I knew from talking to her that she thought her voice-to-text made no sense: “It is not easy to read and definitely makes no sense at all.” And yet I found I could follow the narrative fairly well. But I attribute that to my historical knowledge; I have read the Harry Potter series several times (as has Binal, naturally) so, even with the grammatical missteps and weird interpretations of Binal’s narrative, it’s possible to eke the story out. I do think this outcome would be completely different for someone who had no prior knowledge of the stories, and shows the importance of historical knowledge when it comes to “passing down” oral traditions. Sure, the story may change from speaker to speaker (just play a game of telephone with 5 of your favourite friends) but as long as people have the historical background they will be able to understand the message. It is why some people understand Shakespearian theatre and others look on it as another language.
Going back to my favourite line: I found it really remarkable how the technology Binal used easily recognized, or came up with, such modern Pop culture words and phrases. I used the speech to text right in Microsoft Word and it could not recognize my last name (Patton is sort of famous in US second world war circles… at least I get asked at the border a lot if I’m related to the general), yet Binal’s software knew almost all the Harry Potter references and a plethora of other ones. It showed me the disparity between programs and that, as in most things, you need to research on which software to use when implementing it in a setting like a classroom where Pop references would definitely benefit the students.
Finally, Binal states, “While oral stories may be wonderfully immersive in their right, without the written word they may not (will not) live forever.” Though technically true, there is another option: recording. Technology has made the idea of recording oral traditions and languages such an attainable goal now as each handheld phone can record on the spot. We need to start a library of oral stories just we have for written ones, so that they can be part of future generations’ historical knowledge.
Binal’s Voice-To-Text Assignment
Upon listening to Adriana’s speculative narratives on AI I was struck by how similar they were to a similar assignment I worked on in another course. We had designed a wearable device linked to VR goggles that could aid students in both their education and in monitoring their mental and physical health. I do not see this technology being too far off and was so excited to see that Adriana was on the same wavelength. In my own speculative narrative, I looked at an actual AI robot (for lack of a better word) that was able to provide assistance, albeit in a kind of pandemic-riddled Blade Runnerish future.
I found Adriana’s second narrative, Edison learning curriculum planner, particularly interesting. We know that we need to put students’ educations firmly into their hands for them to be an active participant and not just a disinterested observer. The idea of allowing the student the opportunity to schedule their day not only around their classes, but around their social interactions with peers would allow schools to be more than just a building where students got to learn, but a place where they facilitate their own learning hand in hand with the educators and peers surrounding them.
The one drawback I see in this technology advancement is cost. In reality, these AI planners would be quite expensive and would further the digital divide between the “have” and “have nots”. The pandemic has really opened my eyes to this disparity as I oversaw chromebook distribution for our district last Spring. Our district loaned out over nine hundred chromebooks to students who did not have access to a computer at home. As we move forward with such beneficial technology, we need to be cognizant that it needs to be in the hands of all and not just some.
Adriana’s Speculative Narratives Assignment
My Speculative Narratives Assignment
“Emojis are pictograms and seem to transform the movie plot into visual poetry. While the original media was a form of visual representation, the expressed ideas were not intended to be reduced to poetry. Not relying on syllables, I attempted to reduce the plot to the simplest set of icons and while working out the structure nearly created a haiku (too many parts and images).” Ben Z.
The idea Ben brought up of visual poetry in his Task 6: A 90s emoji story intrigued me. When I went to describe my plot, I tried my hardest to break it down into the absolute most essential pieces that needed to be said and then “translate” them into emojis; we didn’t seem that far off. But the poetry aspect… it reminded me of a game I had purchased recently (COVID times = a multitude of family board games in the Patton household) called “Poetry for Neanderthals”. The premise is that you must get your partner to guess a word or phrase by describing it using only one syllable words; reduce your hints to their simplest forms. I believe that this is what emojis seem to do in text conversation at present; they take complex ideas and emotions and reduce and represent them with simple visual representations. Now, I’m not saying that they do this one hundred percent successfully, or that they will become a fluid next language for future generations, but, like the one syllable words in the game, they tend to get their point across a majority of the time. And sometimes what they are saying can be seen as a basic visual poetry.
I also agree with Ben’s statement, “Emoji-mediated language use for this context seems less concise to me than the written or spoken word.” Face to face conversations and descriptive written texts are still superior methods of communicating which allow subtle grammatical and emotional “footprints” to be interpreted by the reader/listener. But, as times change and we have less and less “face-time” with individuals and more and more communication through quick text blasts, I see emojis not becoming a language unto themselves, but rather a more symbiotic partner in our communications. I think we already see this transformation happening with the advent of a GIFs option on most keyboards as well as emojis. The application of visual representations to augment thoughts, emotions, and ideas is something I believe will only flourish as we forward with technology.
By the way, Happy Gilmore is an awesome movie!
The first time I read Peter’s posting for The Golden Record Curation assignment my immediate response was “cop out!” (sorry Peter). “I realized that no choice would be a bad choice. So the choice I made was to not choose.” By randomly choosing songs Peter just flew in the face of my entire posting; music elicits an emotional response with people and we can harness that and curate pieces together carefully and thus, at the end, have a new exciting, emotionally charged piece of work for others to enjoy: the mixtape. I laboured over my list for quite some time, brought my family in to listen, bored friends at work by asking them if they thought that the songs transitioned easily into each other, and Peter randomly chose ten numbers and BAM! Done.
“It seems like bots are making lots of decisions for us these days. So I decided to be a bot of a kind.”
With these two sentences Peter completely changed my outlook. Bots (or algorithms) do make a lot of decisions about what we see and consume at present. As Dr. Cathy O’Neil said in her article How can we stop algorithms telling lies?:
“…the underlying functionality (of an algorithm) is… : collect historical data about people, profiling their behaviour online, location, or answers to questionnaires, and use that massive dataset to predict their future purchases, voting behaviour, or work ethic.” O’Neil, C. (2017, July 16)
Peter had done nothing but exactly what my Spotify account does after I have finished listening to an album or playlist; look at my historical listening pattern and randomly suggest music that could be deemed similar and likable by me. He had twenty-seven quality pieces to start with and deduced that by using that historical information he would be able to achieve a solid list of songs for the assignment through a random selection process. And he was right; he likes his generated list (and I did too, grudgingly). I believe Peter has given a great example of just how powerful these bots and algorithms are at predicting outcomes by using historical data. We will have to wait and see if individuals will use these tools for the benefit of society or to its detriment.
Peter’s Golden Record Assignment
References
O’Neil, C. (2017, July 16). How can we stop algorithms telling lies? The Observer. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/16/how-can-we-stop-algorithms-telling-lies
“Simon Stålenhag (b. 1984) is the internationally acclaimed author and artist behind Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood. His highly imaginative images and stories depicting illusive sci-fi phenomena in mundane, hyper-realistic Scandinavian and American landscapes have made Stålenhag one of the most sought-after visual storytellers in the world.”
https://www.salomonssonagency.se/simon-stalenhag
For this speculative assignment I decided to re-interpret two of Simon Stålenhag’s paintings as examples of the relationship between advanced technology and human culture. I am completely enthralled with his artwork and the mix of futuristic technological ideas and the everydayness of the backgrounds. I hope you find these stories enjoyable and thought-provoking.
https://www.simonstalenhag.se/bilderbig/ark_tess_big.jpg
Recording taken from surveillance mic in Smart Refuse Unit #14807; 8:38pm April 3/2054. Two voices heard: Simon (last name unknown) and Lang (no last name).
Simon: You comin’ to watch this? I thought this was your favourite show…
Lang: Meh… I’ve seen this episode like a million times. Besides, the clouds are starting to bug out and they haven’t turned on the powerplant exhaust outputs so I bet we get about two thirds of the show, tops before you can’t see shit.
Simon: Always so negative Lang… come sit down, shut up, and enjoy the light show.
Lang: (Sighs) Whatever. Ever since they cut public access to cable and started broadcasting TV outside in the sky, I’ve kinda tuned out. No choice anymore…
Simon: Well how else are you going to get people to go outside smartass? It’s bad enough that we have to stay away from everyone because that virus is so easy to catch, but locking ourselves inside all day and night kinda sucks ass. I’m stoked that we are allowed out to watch TV from 8-10; I can’t stand staring at the same walls all the time. And to get away from the family!! C’mon, you can’t stand being around Mom and Dad anymore than I can. “Lang, take the garbage out. Lang, go to the grocers and pick up these items. Lang, someone is knocking at the door. Answer it while we go in the shelter.” We have no freedom man… they just tell us what to do and we blindly obey… makes me sick.
Lang: Remember that time I got home from the store and we’d glued that fake dog shit onto my shoe and your parents saw it and started losing their shit and rushing around for their masks and everything? Fuck man, that was priceless… I can’t believe they didn’t kick me out of the house after that. It took us like 30 minutes to calm them down. (sound of both laughing) Who knew dog shit would be so scary?
Simon: Yeah, or that dogs would be the main carriers of this fucked up disease. Man, I miss Gordon. He was such a great dog… always ready to go hang out and play fetch at the park. So fucking pissed we had to put him down… so pissed.
Lang: You know your parents had no choice; it was the fucking law! What were they going to do? Let him go so he could be like these other bug carriers roaming around spreading disease everywhere they piss and shit? Had to be done man… had to be done. Now, you just gotta become a cat lover like me. Right Bert? (Cat meow heard)
Simon: You and that cat… unbelievable. How can you even like that thing? It barely acknowledges your existence… only reason he’s here right now is because he knows you have a can of food for him in your pocket. Cats are messed…
(Sound of can being opened)
Lang: Here ya go big guy… eat up. Yeah, whatever, Bert has been with me from before I moved in with you and that’s… what? Four years ago? Five? I don’t know, I’ve lost count… it’s all a blur. Like the show you’re watching! (laughs)
Simon: Five years smartass… Thank God you moved in. I was ready to throttle Mom and Dad by then. Just the three of us and no one else to really hang with. And Dad is so pathetic at video games… I mean at least he tried and shit, but man he would just sit there and bash buttons and end up trapped in the corner. I can’t even count how many times I had to mercy shoot him in the back just so we could keep moving.
Lang: Probably as many times as I’ve had to do it to you, sloth boy. Sometimes you are so slow at moving forward! My God! It’s like you get ADHD in there… Hey look!! Shiny object! Was that a squirrel? (Laughing heard)
Simon: Whatever douche, just because I still have to use a controller and you get to jack straight into the system… not fair dude, not fair.
Lang: Hey, just using the skills God gave me to kick your ass a little more efficiently, that’s all.
Simon: Speaking of kicking, remember that time your left knee gave out and you went and had it replaced, but they gave you the wrong model leg and it was like 3 inches too short? That was priceless… you walked around looking like you were that disco star from that movie… what was his name? Joel?
Lang: John… John Travolta. And for your information, I loved that swagger I had then. Worked well with the ladies, let me tell you. (Laughter heard from both)
Simon: I’m sure it did… just like that sexy nose of yours.
Lang: Hey now, take it easy on the beak. I’m sensitive, mother fucker.
Simon: Hey, I’ve never asked you, but why do you think you ended up with that white monstrosity?
Lang: Thank you for asking Simon, but it’s not a monstrosity; it’s my Pinocchio nose. You see, every time I tell someone that you’re cool it grows just a bit longer. It actually started out as an indent…
Simon: Ha ha… so fucking funny.
Lang: I know, I’m a master. (Pause. Sound of shoes scuffs) From what I get, way back in the day, there was a harsh plague in Europe that killed mass amounts of people. So docs back then didn’t know shit about it so they would totally bundle up and wear these crazy masks that looked like bird beaks. They were super weird looking, but I guess if you saw that coming towards you it meant help was on its way. I think that’s where they got my design; I’m helpful, right? I run all your parents crazy errands outside so they don’t have to risk being infected like other people and I get to hang out with you and chill and do whatever. They see me coming and they know that I’ve taken care of business. I’m kinda like man’s best friend but with way cooler clothes and a shitty attitude… which I learned from you, dumbass! (Sounds of both laughing)
Simon: Yeah, who knew I would be such an influential trendsetter! Maybe for the next model they won’t allow them to be so open to learning how to act from their owners. (Pause) Dude… you’re way better than Gordon. You’re my best friend. I don’t know where I would be if you hadn’t come along, man. I was getting into a dark place in my head… this virus shit sucks so bad! I miss just hanging out and shooting the shit with friends. But… we get to do that so that’s cool. You fucking rock Lang; don’t forget it.
Lang: Are we going to kiss now? Because I ate a shit load of garlic for dinner… dude, you’re awesome and I feel pretty lucky to be part of your family. As messed as your parents are, they love you… or they wouldn’t have brought me on board! (Laughing heard from both) Annnd… the clouds are gone! Let’s head back and play some vids. Come on Bert! Time to kick it inside!
Simon: Yeah, alright. Just don’t shoot me in the back again, ok? Last time you did that it zeroed me out and I lost all my shit.
Lang: I promise nothing!
(Laughter can he heard fading away)
Recording Terminated
https://www.simonstalenhag.se/bilderbig/by_roadwork_1920.jpg
Recording taken from Zoom Virtual Archives – Data #78614518: Audio of meeting between Henry Maranda, Director of Operations for Duracom Inc., Dean Sampson, Program Manager for Project Gaslight, and Fred Mallery, chief engineer for Project Gaslight. Meeting took place at 10:17am on October 21, 2055.
Maranda: Alright Sampson, what is so important that you had to pull me out of my meeting with the Venezuelans? We have the potential to make billions down there and I still have a lot of negotiating to do before we can get boots on the ground. Make this quick.
Sampson: Good morning sir. Sorry for interrupting you, but I wouldn’t do it unless it was of the utmost importance so that’s…
Maranda: Hold on… who else is in this meeting? I don’t recognize them.
Sampson: Ah, that would be Fred Mallery sir. He is the chief engineer for Project Gaslight. I asked him to join us as he is responsible for finding the flaw…
Maranda: Flaw? What flaw? And catch me up to speed on Gaslight… I know it has something to do with employee productivity but I’ve been so busy with this Venezuelan project that I’ve lost touch.
Sampson: Right… ok. Well, with the onset of this new pandemic we started researching ways in which to keep our employees both working on site and safe from infection. As most of our drilling and resource production takes place away from urban centres, we started looking at ways to keep our employees from traveling back and forth from home and work, thus minimizing infection occurring through people outside their work bubble. Gaslight was the answer. Instead of a crew working an eight-hour shift and then travelling home, they don their headsets and the virtual ocular manipulators replicate the restive state of a normal eight-hour sleep cycle in just two. The employee, ready for another day, takes off their headset, eats the nutrition pouches we supply them, and continues with their work. This drove our productivity rates through the roof as we were completing projects well ahead of schedule and were able to promise completion dates far better than our competition.
Maranda: Right, right… I remember. Gaslight has been quite the boon for the company. And now you’re telling there’s a flaw?
Sampson: Well… yes. You see… maybe I should get Mallery to step in here.
Mallery: Oh, hi… I mean good morning gentlemen. Let me begin by saying it is a great honour to speak with you Mr. Maranda. I have admired your work with neophysicality for…
Maranda: Cut to the chase Mallery.
Mallery: Right. (sound of a cough) So what we have noticed in the past week or so is a dramatic drop in productivity from our Gaslight crews. Actually, as of 1:43am this morning, productivity has hit zero.
Maranda: Excuse me?
Mallery: All job sites are presently at a standstill. No one is working.
Maranda: Don’t tell me they all want to unionize because I will go find workers who will be more than happy to…
Mallery: No, it’s not that. It has to do with the headsets.
Maranda: What? They don’t want to wear them? Listen, these people fully knew what they were signing up for when they took these positions, and they are being thoroughly compensated. If we need to fire a crew to show the rest we mean business…
Sampson: No, it’s not that they don’t want to wear the headsets. It’s that they won’t take them off.
Maranda: What the hell are you talking about?
Mallery: You see, Gaslight is designed around idea of resting an individual’s senses and body though intense virtual euphoria. The subject is surrounded by what they see is their ultimate dream and while they experience this sensation, their body rapidly recovers from the trials of the workday. A side effect, and one we thought beneficial, is that the worker experiences a euphoric feeling at the two-hour mark, which makes them feel even more refreshed and ready to return to work. What we didn’t anticipate was that if they left the headset on after the two-hour mark, the euphoric feeling stayed, though slightly diminished, and then returned with more intensity every two hours. Even without the dream sequence happening, workers are choosing to leave the headsets on for the euphoria.
Maranda: So get someone out there and rip those things from their heads!
Sampson: It’s not that easy. Each headset has been individually set up for each worker and only recognizes their fingerprints and biowaves. Someone else rips it off and it may send a shock through the virtual optics and destroy the wearer’s vision… or brain… we’re not sure.
Maranda: What do you mean “you’re not sure”??!
Mallery: Addiction was never taken into account when we came up with Gaslight. Quite the opposite, we thought that crews would absolutely refuse to wear the headsets. Hence why we were so happy with the euphoria side effect.
Maranda: So what you are telling me is that I have crews of workers across the globe standing around doing nothing like fucking zombie addicts?! Oh my God… how many work sites did we install Gaslight into?
Sampson: Ummm… all of them.
Maranda: What?
Mallery: Preliminary numbers were so enthusiastic that the Board decided to implement Gaslight across the board. It really is quite the invention when you…
Maranda: Shut up. Let me think… (quite a long pause) Ok, how do we fix this? Tell me your ideas… I know you didn’t come here without knowing some way out of this. Let’s hear it.
(Another pause)
Mallery: Well, there is one sure fire way for this to end. We wait for the batteries in the units to die. This will then release all workers from the headsets with no complications whatsoever.
Maranda: Perfect!! I knew you would have an answer… so how long until the batteries die?
Sampson: Well, (cough heard) as we used our most advanced batteries for Gaslight, we are looking at about six to seven months.
Maranda: Jesus Christ…
Sampson: And on top of that, the workers aren’t eating or drinking fluids so they will waste away to nothing and die if we don’t send crews to each site to monitor them and make sure they are properly nourished. If even one dies… the lawsuits…
Maranda: Stop… just… stop. (a beeping is heard) That’s the CEO calling. She wants an update on all our jobs. How am I going… what do I? Alright… you two organize crews to go to each site and start figuring out what we need to keep everyone alive. I will go talk to the CEO and inform her of the “flaw” in Gaslight. Then I think all of us better start getting our resumes in order. Jesus Christ…
Mallery: Again sir, it is an honour to finally…
Call Terminated
